About

The presidential system is a type of democratic government that could benefit much of mankind. It has a unique way of balancing powers so that governments can be strong but not autocratic. This helps alleviate many problems associated with poor governance and corruption. And unless governance is improved, all other efforts of man seem to go to waste.

The presidential form of government was invented by the founders of the United States of America as a remedy for the British parliamentary system. The U.S. system is simple yet it’s not fully understood. Other nations have often adopted it in name only. This website is aimed at publishing credible information about this form of government so it’s more fully understood. Our current focus is on the presidential system’s suitability for modern day India.

8 thoughts on “About”

Though quite late I was fortunate enough to have stumble upon what could only be called a very well researched and cogently argued work on the merits of a presidential system in India. The references cited ranging a span of around 500 years of literature on various aspects of law and political science right from John Locke and Montesquieu up until contemporaries like Granville Austin and Arun Shourie deserves a hats-off.

In a lot of ways I feel that India is a lot similar to the United States, be it the diversity in ethnicity, regional emotions, spirit of democracy and enterprise. Literature on Constitutions often cite two types of federalism viz Coming Together or Top Down federalism of which we are attributed to being top down federalism as if a strong centre created states in India for the sake administrative convenience. But regionalism in India is so strong that self touted unifiers of India like Nehru ultimately had to succumb to regional pulls resulting in linguistic states which he was vehemently opposed to. This makes me think of us being a sort of third kind of federation i.e a Brought Together federation.

But I deeply lament the fact that this excellent work of yours may ultimately get confined to intellectual circles and upper middle class bookworms. I really wish to see this discourse gain wider audience and more quality debates and hopefully as an entry in some party’s election manifesto atleast in the near future. All the opposition that comes across to this concept can be threefold
1. Infallible and informed makers of our constitution
2. Recipe for dictatorship
3. Basic structure doctrine.

If there is a national mood in favour of such a change and the Supreme Court corrects its course that the true basic structure is one of democracy and not the system that enforces democracy per se a wider political debate especially among the hopefuls of high office and mainstream media can spur what can be nothing short of a constitutional revolution.I really hope we can work towards it and your work finds its rightful conclusion.

I went through your thoughts on presidential form of govt.Thanks for bringing out a well thought idea.

While I do believe the presidential form is good, I think we can make a form of govt better than even presidential form.

I used to write a blog before titled (https://betterthandemocracy.wordpress.com) You can have a look.Though title says so I’m not against democracy. Also I’m not maintaining it actively due to lack of time. The following is a summary of the institution I think is the best;
1. Parliament/Congress can be replaced by a smaller panel of sector specific experts.Too many lawmakers are not required.They don’t add value,simply fight for the sake of their party.
2. Let the panel of experts discuss bills.Let the fate of the bills be decided by logic rather than vote. Let each statement be assigned a weight age based on strength of argument.Only in cases where it fails, majority vote can be made.Invite ideas from the public.Since only logic matters any argument can be considered eligible.
3. Let candidates for President be shortlisted by proven leadership expertise like for ex being a CEO of successful company for 15 yrs, or head of a successful municipal corporation for 10 years and so on.Nominations can be sent by the citizens.
4. Let the people directly vote for the President.Let him appoint the various heads of each state/city. The various heads will be local people and will appraise the President of local progress in say 6 months or so.
5. Let a panel of experts do a review of the progress made by the President after say 5 years and whether he should run for the presidency again.They will decide his shortlisting into the candidates list.

This is a rough sketch. The details need to be elaborated further. My opinion is that too many checks put roadblocks into efficient execution by the President.With independent judiciary there will be sufficient check.

Salient features;
-> Parliament replaced by experts panel
–> Logic over majority voting
–> Executive selected by the President
–> President candidates shortlisted based on achievements.
–> No party/political factions based rule

Please let me know what you think of this. Probably we can evolve a form of govt better than US or UK models.

Dear BhanuDhamija,
In your book “Why India Needs Presidential Democracy” you have very well analyzed the subject. It is a well researched book and
I congratulate you for your pain staking efforts. Your comments that our Parliamentary Democracy is nothing but a Parliamentary anarchy
is most appropriate. In fact, I will go one step further, that our system has now been so fine tuned by our politicians that we can as well say
that our democracy literally means of the politicians, for the politicians and by the politicians.

For nearly 4 decades now, I have been writing a lot on the topic and have almost relentlessly carried a campaign for a truly Presidential
Democracy as a Better Alternative. My first book “Presidential Democracy – A Better Alternative?” was published way back in 1979 and
it was very well received. People from various walks of life including Shri J.R.D Tata, Shri Nani Palkhivala, Babubhai Patel – Ex- Chief
Minister of Gujarat, Shri Chimanbhai Mehta – Ex-Cabinet Minister and many others have all had endorsed my stand.

Presently, now also several prominent intellectuals and politicians including Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shri Arun Shourie,
Shri Shanthakumran, Baburao Marandi etc. are all in the favour of change of the system.

The success of the Presidential Democracy as adopted by the USA is mainly because of the separation of the powers. The executive
does not form a part of the legislature. The legislature has also got its own role to play, whereas our present system has provided so much
scope for the members of legislature to enjoy power and their main target is to get the Minister’s Gaddi at any cost. The million dollar question is how
will these politicians ever agree for the change? Our politicians are so comfortable in the present system. Will they endorse a
truly Democratic Presidential System? We will require a very strong public opinion.

The intellectuals and politicians like Shri Shashi Tharoor, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shri Arun Shourie, Shri Baburao Marandi etc. must
all come together cutting across the party lines and they should whole heartedly take up this issue on priority basis in their parties with their
other colleagues.

The intellectuals also will have do something beyond the lip services. Our Industrialists are so busy with their own affairs and they are always
concerned to get things done and beat the system. Most of them are not ready to see the larger interests of the country. Are they ready
to play their role in bringing about the change in the system?

I am thankful to you for your endorsement of Forum for Presidential Democracy and also by putting videos which we have prepared
for the common man to understand the advantages of truly Democratic Presidential vis-a-visa our present model.

Dear sir
I cannot truly express how happy I feel to have stumbled upon this excellent piece of work and to have known that there are other people too who share my concern on this subject. As a student of both political science and law, I have had an opportunity to comparatively analyse different political and legal systems around the globe and as a result of it I have come to nurture a feeling that most of the problems facing Indian society today have their roots in the ill-conceived design of its political structure. As rightly pointed out by you, Presidential system can prove to be the elixir that India needs to purge itself of poor governance. I hope this proposal see the light of day very soon.

Bhanuji, I am also deeply attached with the movement along with Mr JaswantMehta as member of the core committee. I participated with him in making of the documentary on the subject, which is on youtube and also on our website. I highly appreciate your efforts and congratulate you for the same. We ought to work in tandem and try to maximise the awareness on the matter involve important politicians to support our views. I will read your book and interact with you.

Thank you. Mr. Mehta and your Forum for Presidential Democracy have made important contributions. I look forward to working with you toward our common goal. Our faith is in the Indian people; the politicians are too comfortable in the existing system.

Mr Bhanu Dhamija, you have written a very good book based on extensive research. I would like to add from my research for my second doctorate on Constitution of India that the Indian Constitution is null & void ab initio because it was never voted by the People of India in whose name it was adopted on 26th November 1949 because the First Lok Sabha came into existence only in April 1952. The Constituent Assembly, as you rightly pointed out in your book, was NOT an elected body but a Nominate Body. Therefore, there is an urgent need for taking a serious look at the fraud played by the Nehru on the People of India …